Geoffrey Tozer
Encyclopedia
Geoffrey Tozer was an Australia
n classical pianist
and composer
. As a child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight, and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13. His career included tours of Europe, America, Australia and China, where he performed the Yellow River Concerto to an estimated audience of 80 million people. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, including those of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Gerhard.
Tozer recorded with the Chandos label, beginning his recording career with the works of Medtner. He was regarded as a "superb recitalist" and had the ability to improvise, transpose "instantly" and reduce an orchestral score to a piano score at sight. Tozer won numerous awards and much recognition worldwide, but suffered comparative neglect in Australia, during the last years of his life.
, a hill station
in the India
n Himalayas
. However, he was conceived in Tasmania
, Australia
. His mother was Veronica Tozer (née Hawkshaw), a gifted musician and pianist who had become a music teacher to support herself and her two sons after her separation and subsequent divorce from Colonel (later Major-General) Donald Tozer. In the summer of 1954 she visited Tasmania in order to recover from a serious medical condition. There she met Geoffrey Conan-Davies, who was the son of an Anglican minister and who had studied theology himself during one of his years at Oxford University. He was a retired colonial administrator, formerly of East Africa, who was married to Ermyntrude (née Malet), with whom he had four children. Veronica then returned to India, where her son Geoffrey Tozer was born. He lived his first four years in India, thanks to the generosity of Princess Usha. At the age of three, he picked out the notes of Beethoven
's Appassionata Sonata
, which his mother had been teaching a pupil. He moved with his mother and older brother Peter to Melbourne
, Australia
, where Veronica taught him Beethoven, Bach
and Bartók
. He attended St Joseph's Parish School, Malvern, in the same class as the historian Edward Duyker
and then De La Salle College, Malvern. In 1962, at the age of eight, Tozer performed Bach's Concerto No. 5 in F minor with the Victorian Symphony Orchestra(as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
was then known) under Clive Douglas, in a concert that was televised nationally by the ABC
. In April 1964, at Melbourne's Nicholas Hall, he performed the same concerto with the Astra Orchestra under George Logie-Smith
. In February 1965 he performed the Haydn D major Concerto before a live audience at the Myer Music Bowl
, a performance which can be heard on the disc issued to coincide with his Celebration Forty tour in 2004. Within four years he had played all five Beethoven concertos.
(the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel
) in England, and Theodore Lettvin
in the USA. Eileen Ralf lived in Hobart
, and the airline TAA
flew Geoffrey to Hobart and back every week for lessons, free of charge. He later described Eileen Ralf's teaching as "the greatest musical gift given me". He became the youngest semi-finalist ever (aged fourteen) at the Leeds International Piano Competition
and soon afterwards made his European debut at a BBC Promenade Concert
in the Royal Albert Hall
, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
under Sir Colin Davis
. He was the youngest person to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship.
In 1971, aged 16, he stayed with Benjamin Britten
for several weeks. Britten invited him to perform at the Aldeburgh Festival
, where he accompanied the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
.
He performed at the inaugural concert of the Melbourne Concert Hall
in 1982. In the early 1980s he taught at the University of Michigan
. From 1983 he based himself in Canberra
and briefly taught at the Canberra School of Music
before his touring and recording schedules made this impractical. His early recordings were not commercially released; his first commercial recording, in 1986, was of John Ireland
's Piano Concerto in E flat with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
conducted by David Measham
, still considered by many the best recording of the work. In 1989 he worked with Peter Sculthorpe
to record a disc of Sculthorpe's works for piano and strings.
visited Australia in the 1990s, she asked to be introduced to "the one who plays like a Russian", meaning Geoffrey Tozer. In 1993, Tozer made his first tour of China
, appearing in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities. In 1994, he made the first complete recording of the four piano concertos of Ottorino Respighi
, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
under Sir Edward Downes
.
In May 2001, Tozer was the first Western artist to perform the Yellow River Concerto in China
, at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Culture. His performance, which received a standing ovation, was broadcast live on Chinese national television and was watched by an estimated audience of 80 million people.
In May 2003, Tozer gave a recital in New York City
with Colin McPhillamy, in which they gave the first performance in the United States of Nikolai Medtner
's The Treehouse. This followed an appearance in Birmingham
to play in a tribute to Medtner's foremost pupil, the late Edna Iles
.
Tozer championed the music of many under-recorded composers, such as Respighi, Alan Rawsthorne
, John Blackwood McEwen
, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
, Roberto Gerhard, Percy Grainger
, John Ireland
(the Piano Concerto in E flat) and Nikolai Tcherepnin
. At one Berlin Festival, Tozer gave an all-Artur Schnabel
concert, in the presence of the entire Schnabel family; he has also recorded Schnabel's music.
Tozer also championed another Melbourne
prodigy, pianist Noel Mewton-Wood
, who died in 1953. Tozer has said of him: "He was the most stimulating and intellectually powerful pianist Australia has ever produced. He had been completely forgotten before his work reappeared on CD and everyone realised how revolutionary his playing was." Tozer first heard of him when he prepared to play Bach and Beethoven as a seven-year-old for Mewton-Wood's former Melbourne teacher, Waldemar Seidel. "I played a few bars and he jumped up shouting, 'Noel's come back'. I had never heard of him, of course. But, after listening to his records, I realised it was the greatest musical compliment I've ever received." Tozer arranged for solo piano some of the music written by Mewton-Wood for the 1944 film Tawny Pipit
.
He also created the piano reduction of the vocal score for Minoru Miki
's opera An Actor's Revenge.
Geoffrey Tozer was a noted improviser. He sometimes ended formal recitals by improvisations using themes and styles suggested by the audience: Donizetti
, Bellini
, Rossini, Verdi
, Wagner
, Bartók
, Piazzolla
, Cage
, Satie
, Gershwin
and Brahms
simultaneously, and many others.
In January 2003, to celebrate Miriam Hyde
's ninetieth birthday, the ABC broadcast Geoffrey Tozer performing her music live, from the Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney. He played one of her two Piano Concertos at the Australian Institute of Music
in 2005, to an audience of only 15 people. Miriam Hyde said the concerto needed someone of Geoffrey Tozer's power to play it.
In an obituary after Tozer's death, former Australian Prime Minister
Paul Keating
lashed the "indifference" and "malevolence" toward Tozer from the arts establishment in Australia. He had last played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
in 1994, and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
in 1995.
, who described him as "an extraordinary pianist".
He was awarded two consecutive Australian Artists Creative Fellowships, worth more than $500,000 in total, in the 1990s. The grants were inaugurated after Paul Keating
met Tozer while he was teaching at St Edmund's College
, the Canberra
school where Keating's son Patrick was a student. Keating, who cites Tozer as Australia's greatest pianist, said he felt "ashamed" that a pianist of Tozer's talents was earning only $9,000 a year, so he introduced the fellowships (they are sometimes referred to as "the Keatings") and the first five-year award in 1989 ($329,000) went to Tozer. He was the subject of at least one political cartoon.
The fellowships allowed Tozer to travel to London to commence his recording career. He recorded most of the solo piano works of Nikolai Medtner
. His recording for Chandos of the three Medtner piano concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
under Neeme Järvi
won a Diapason d'Or
prize in 1992. and was also nominated for a Grammy award. Although a few recordings of the concertos had been made before the advent of CDs, Tozer's recordings are regarded as an important early addition to the recorded repertoire of the Medtner concertos using modern recording techniques. His Medtner recordings were described by the French critic Alain Cochard as "a landmark in recorded history". He wrote "All that Medtner demands, Tozer possesses. This is the playing of a grand master; there is no doubt about it". In 2001, on the anniversary of Nikolai Medtner's death, he gave a recital of Medtner's works to a capacity audience in Melbourne; however, this concert received no reviews in any media.
His other international awards included Hungary's Liszt Centenary Medallion, Belgium's Prix Alex De Varies and Britain's Royal Overseas League Medallion, although he received no similar honours in Australia.
In 1996 his recording of piano works by Ferruccio Busoni
won the Soundscapes (Australia) prize for "Record of the Year".
Among Tozer's unpublished recordings are some of considerable historical interest, such as his recording with the tenor Gerald English
of Sir Michael Tippett
's song cycle Boyhood's End.
On 21 August 2009 he died from liver
disease at the East Malvern house in Melbourne in which he lived as a child, having been released from the Alfred Hospital
the previous week. He was survived by four of five siblings.
A public memorial service was held on 1 October 2009 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating
delivered a stinging address that lasted 45 minutes. He said that, while Geoffrey Tozer "deserved to be remembered alongside the Australian triumvirate of Nellie Melba
, Percy Grainger
and Joan Sutherland
, he was treated with indifference, contempt and malevolence by the Melbourne
and Sydney
symphony orchestras. The people who chose repertoire for those two orchestras and who had charge of the selection of artists during this period should hang their heads in shame at their neglect of him. ... If anyone needs a case example of the bitchiness and preference within the arts in Australia, here you have it". Keating described the death of Tozer as "... like Canada
having lost Glenn Gould
, or France
, Ginette Neveu
. It is a massive cultural loss, the kind of loss people felt when Germany lost Dresden
". He compared Tozer to pianists of the calibre of Emil Gilels
, Arthur Rubinstein
, Sviatoslav Richter
, Ferruccio Busoni
and Artur Schnabel
. Keating also compared Tozer's death to that of Maria Callas
, who died alone in Paris in 1977. "In the end, his liver failed. But I think I have to say we all let him down. ... We should have cared more and done more." The service was sparsely attended. The full text of Keating's eulogy, which contains some important biographical details not available elsewhere, can be found here.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n classical pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. As a child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight, and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13. His career included tours of Europe, America, Australia and China, where he performed the Yellow River Concerto to an estimated audience of 80 million people. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, including those of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Gerhard.
Tozer recorded with the Chandos label, beginning his recording career with the works of Medtner. He was regarded as a "superb recitalist" and had the ability to improvise, transpose "instantly" and reduce an orchestral score to a piano score at sight. Tozer won numerous awards and much recognition worldwide, but suffered comparative neglect in Australia, during the last years of his life.
Early life
Geoffrey Peter Bede Hawkshaw Tozer was born in 1954 at MussoorieMussoorie
Mussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi...
, a hill station
Hill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia , but also in Africa , for towns founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
. However, he was conceived in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. His mother was Veronica Tozer (née Hawkshaw), a gifted musician and pianist who had become a music teacher to support herself and her two sons after her separation and subsequent divorce from Colonel (later Major-General) Donald Tozer. In the summer of 1954 she visited Tasmania in order to recover from a serious medical condition. There she met Geoffrey Conan-Davies, who was the son of an Anglican minister and who had studied theology himself during one of his years at Oxford University. He was a retired colonial administrator, formerly of East Africa, who was married to Ermyntrude (née Malet), with whom he had four children. Veronica then returned to India, where her son Geoffrey Tozer was born. He lived his first four years in India, thanks to the generosity of Princess Usha. At the age of three, he picked out the notes of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Appassionata Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 23 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...
, which his mother had been teaching a pupil. He moved with his mother and older brother Peter to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where Veronica taught him Beethoven, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
. He attended St Joseph's Parish School, Malvern, in the same class as the historian Edward Duyker
Edward Duyker
Edward Duyker is an Australian historian and author born in Melbourne, Victoria, to a father from the Netherlands and a mother from Mauritius...
and then De La Salle College, Malvern. In 1962, at the age of eight, Tozer performed Bach's Concerto No. 5 in F minor with the Victorian Symphony Orchestra(as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
was then known) under Clive Douglas, in a concert that was televised nationally by the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. In April 1964, at Melbourne's Nicholas Hall, he performed the same concerto with the Astra Orchestra under George Logie-Smith
George Logie-Smith
George Logie-Smith OBE was an Australian orchestra and choral conductor, music examiner, and music educator.He was born in Melbourne, to parents who had migrated to Australia from Scotland before he was born...
. In February 1965 he performed the Haydn D major Concerto before a live audience at the Myer Music Bowl
Sidney Myer Music Bowl
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain, close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct...
, a performance which can be heard on the disc issued to coincide with his Celebration Forty tour in 2004. Within four years he had played all five Beethoven concertos.
Studies
He studied with Eileen Ralf and Keith Humble in Australia, Maria CurcioMaria Curcio
Maria Curcio was an Italian classical pianist who became renowned as a greatly influential and sought-after teacher. Her students included Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Leon Fleisher and Geoffrey Tozer...
(the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
) in England, and Theodore Lettvin
Theodore Lettvin
Theodore Lettvin was an American concert pianist and conductor.Lettvin's first concert was at the age of 5 at the Lyon & Healy in Chicago. At age 11 he appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under conductor Frederik Stock...
in the USA. Eileen Ralf lived in Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, and the airline TAA
Trans Australia Airlines
Trans Australia Airlines or TAA, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its sale to Qantas in May 1996. During that period TAA played a major part in the development of the Australian air transport industry...
flew Geoffrey to Hobart and back every week for lessons, free of charge. He later described Eileen Ralf's teaching as "the greatest musical gift given me". He became the youngest semi-finalist ever (aged fourteen) at the Leeds International Piano Competition
Leeds International Pianoforte Competition
The Leeds International Piano Competition informally known as The Leeds takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess of Harewood and Fanny Waterman, who is today its Chairman and Artistic Director. The competition was first held in 1963...
and soon afterwards made his European debut at a BBC Promenade Concert
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
in the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
under Sir Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
. He was the youngest person to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship.
In 1971, aged 16, he stayed with Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
for several weeks. Britten invited him to perform at the Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
, where he accompanied the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
.
He performed at the inaugural concert of the Melbourne Concert Hall
The Arts Centre (Melbourne)
The Victorian Arts Centre is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the inner Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia....
in 1982. In the early 1980s he taught at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. From 1983 he based himself in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
and briefly taught at the Canberra School of Music
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
before his touring and recording schedules made this impractical. His early recordings were not commercially released; his first commercial recording, in 1986, was of John Ireland
John Ireland (composer)
John Nicholson Ireland was an English composer.- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth...
's Piano Concerto in E flat with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
conducted by David Measham
David Measham
David Michael Lucian Measham was a British-Australian conductor and violinist. Measham was born in Nottingham, England, to a musical family. His father, Lester, had trained as an opera singer and his mother, Joan, was a pianist. He began violin studies at age 7, and first conducted at age 13...
, still considered by many the best recording of the work. In 1989 he worked with Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
to record a disc of Sculthorpe's works for piano and strings.
Later career
When Tatiana NikolayevaTatiana Nikolayeva
Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva was a Russian Soviet pianist, composer and teacher.-Early life:Nikolayeva was born in Bezhitsa in the Bryansk district on May 4, 1924...
visited Australia in the 1990s, she asked to be introduced to "the one who plays like a Russian", meaning Geoffrey Tozer. In 1993, Tozer made his first tour of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, appearing in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities. In 1994, he made the first complete recording of the four piano concertos of Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
under Sir Edward Downes
Edward Downes
Sir Edward Thomas "Ted" Downes, CBE was an English conductor, specialising in opera.He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands...
.
In May 2001, Tozer was the first Western artist to perform the Yellow River Concerto in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Culture. His performance, which received a standing ovation, was broadcast live on Chinese national television and was watched by an estimated audience of 80 million people.
In May 2003, Tozer gave a recital in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with Colin McPhillamy, in which they gave the first performance in the United States of Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist.A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano...
's The Treehouse. This followed an appearance in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
to play in a tribute to Medtner's foremost pupil, the late Edna Iles
Edna Iles
Edna Amy Iles was an English pianist.Iles began her studies in Birmingham with Appleby Matthews, making her debut as soloist with the City of Birmingham Orchestra at age 15 in the Liszt E flat Concerto...
.
Tozer championed the music of many under-recorded composers, such as Respighi, Alan Rawsthorne
Alan Rawsthorne
Alan Rawsthorne was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex.-Career:...
, John Blackwood McEwen
John Blackwood McEwen
Sir John Blackwood McEwen was a Scottish classical composer and educator.- Biography :John Blackwood McEwen was born in Hawick in 1868. After initial training in Glasgow, he studied with Ebenezer Prout, Corder and Tobias Matthay at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
, Roberto Gerhard, Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
, John Ireland
John Ireland (composer)
John Nicholson Ireland was an English composer.- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth...
(the Piano Concerto in E flat) and Nikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory...
. At one Berlin Festival, Tozer gave an all-Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
concert, in the presence of the entire Schnabel family; he has also recorded Schnabel's music.
Tozer also championed another Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
prodigy, pianist Noel Mewton-Wood
Noel Mewton-Wood
Noel Mewton-Wood was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved some fame during his short life.-Life and career:...
, who died in 1953. Tozer has said of him: "He was the most stimulating and intellectually powerful pianist Australia has ever produced. He had been completely forgotten before his work reappeared on CD and everyone realised how revolutionary his playing was." Tozer first heard of him when he prepared to play Bach and Beethoven as a seven-year-old for Mewton-Wood's former Melbourne teacher, Waldemar Seidel. "I played a few bars and he jumped up shouting, 'Noel's come back'. I had never heard of him, of course. But, after listening to his records, I realised it was the greatest musical compliment I've ever received." Tozer arranged for solo piano some of the music written by Mewton-Wood for the 1944 film Tawny Pipit
Tawny Pipit (film)
Tawny Pipit is a British war film produced by Prestige Productions in 1944. It tells of how a sleepy English village becomes the centre of attention when a rare bird's nest is discovered there.-Plot:...
.
He also created the piano reduction of the vocal score for Minoru Miki
Minoru Miki
is a Japanese composer and artistic director, particularly known for his promotional activities in favour of Japanese traditional instruments and some of their performers....
's opera An Actor's Revenge.
Geoffrey Tozer was a noted improviser. He sometimes ended formal recitals by improvisations using themes and styles suggested by the audience: Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
, Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, Rossini, Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
, Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
, Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
, Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
simultaneously, and many others.
In January 2003, to celebrate Miriam Hyde
Miriam Hyde
Miriam Beatrice Hyde AO, OBE was an Australian composer, pianist, poet and music educator.She composed over 150 works for piano, songs and other instrumental and orchestral works and performed as a concert pianist with eminent conductors including Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Bernard Heinze and...
's ninetieth birthday, the ABC broadcast Geoffrey Tozer performing her music live, from the Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney. He played one of her two Piano Concertos at the Australian Institute of Music
Australian Institute of Music
The Australian Institute of Music is a private not-for-profit institution originally founded in 1968 by Dr Peter Calvo, and then known as the Sydney Guitar School...
in 2005, to an audience of only 15 people. Miriam Hyde said the concerto needed someone of Geoffrey Tozer's power to play it.
In an obituary after Tozer's death, former Australian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
lashed the "indifference" and "malevolence" toward Tozer from the arts establishment in Australia. He had last played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
in 1994, and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra , commonly known as the Sydney Symphony, is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney...
in 1995.
Honours and awards
Geoffrey received several major awards twice in his lifetime. He won his first Churchill Fellowship at 14 and won a second at 17; this was possible only because the Churchill Committee decided to lower the minimum age by five years in recognition of Tozer's talents. He was also twice awarded Israel's Rubinstein Medal, in 1977 and 1980; on the first occasion, he was handed the prize personally by Arthur RubinsteinArthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
, who described him as "an extraordinary pianist".
He was awarded two consecutive Australian Artists Creative Fellowships, worth more than $500,000 in total, in the 1990s. The grants were inaugurated after Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
met Tozer while he was teaching at St Edmund's College
St Edmund's College, Canberra
St Edmund's College, is a private, Catholic, day school for boys, located in Griffith, a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.The college was established in 1954 by the Christian Brothers as St Edmund's War Memorial College...
, the Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
school where Keating's son Patrick was a student. Keating, who cites Tozer as Australia's greatest pianist, said he felt "ashamed" that a pianist of Tozer's talents was earning only $9,000 a year, so he introduced the fellowships (they are sometimes referred to as "the Keatings") and the first five-year award in 1989 ($329,000) went to Tozer. He was the subject of at least one political cartoon.
The fellowships allowed Tozer to travel to London to commence his recording career. He recorded most of the solo piano works of Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist.A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano...
. His recording for Chandos of the three Medtner piano concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
under Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi is an Estonian-born conductor.-Early life:Järvi studied music first in Tallinn, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others...
won a Diapason d'Or
Diapason d'Or
The Diapason d'Or is a recommendation of outstanding classical music recordings given by reviewers of Diapason magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the British Gramophone magazine....
prize in 1992. and was also nominated for a Grammy award. Although a few recordings of the concertos had been made before the advent of CDs, Tozer's recordings are regarded as an important early addition to the recorded repertoire of the Medtner concertos using modern recording techniques. His Medtner recordings were described by the French critic Alain Cochard as "a landmark in recorded history". He wrote "All that Medtner demands, Tozer possesses. This is the playing of a grand master; there is no doubt about it". In 2001, on the anniversary of Nikolai Medtner's death, he gave a recital of Medtner's works to a capacity audience in Melbourne; however, this concert received no reviews in any media.
His other international awards included Hungary's Liszt Centenary Medallion, Belgium's Prix Alex De Varies and Britain's Royal Overseas League Medallion, although he received no similar honours in Australia.
In 1996 his recording of piano works by Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
won the Soundscapes (Australia) prize for "Record of the Year".
Among Tozer's unpublished recordings are some of considerable historical interest, such as his recording with the tenor Gerald English
Gerald English
Gerald English is an English-born Australian-resident tenor. He has performed operatic and concert repertoire, is a recording artist, and has been an academic....
of Sir Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
's song cycle Boyhood's End.
Death
Geoffrey Tozer was undoubtedly affected by the deaths of his mother in 1996, and of his long-time manager Reuben Fineberg in 1997; but it is debatable whether, as was stated in various obituaries, that he 'became unwell but carried on'. According to his medical records, Geoffrey Tozer's illness did not become apparent until at least seven years after the death of his mother.On 21 August 2009 he died from liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
disease at the East Malvern house in Melbourne in which he lived as a child, having been released from the Alfred Hospital
The Alfred Hospital
The Alfred, also known as Alfred Hospital or The Alfred Hospital, is a major hospital in Melbourne, Victoria. It is the second oldest hospital in Victoria, and the oldest Melbourne hospital still operating on its original site...
the previous week. He was survived by four of five siblings.
A public memorial service was held on 1 October 2009 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
St Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop, currently Denis J. Hart. The building is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.In 1974 Pope Paul VI...
. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
delivered a stinging address that lasted 45 minutes. He said that, while Geoffrey Tozer "deserved to be remembered alongside the Australian triumvirate of Nellie Melba
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...
, Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
and Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
, he was treated with indifference, contempt and malevolence by the Melbourne
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
and Sydney
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra , commonly known as the Sydney Symphony, is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney...
symphony orchestras. The people who chose repertoire for those two orchestras and who had charge of the selection of artists during this period should hang their heads in shame at their neglect of him. ... If anyone needs a case example of the bitchiness and preference within the arts in Australia, here you have it". Keating described the death of Tozer as "... like Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
having lost Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
, or France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Ginette Neveu
Ginette Neveu
Ginette Neveu was a French violinist.-Biography:Born in Paris into a musical family, Ginette Neveu became a violinist and her brother Jean-Paul Neveu a classical pianist. She was also the grandniece of composer Charles-Marie Widor...
. It is a massive cultural loss, the kind of loss people felt when Germany lost Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
". He compared Tozer to pianists of the calibre of Emil Gilels
Emil Gilels
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels was a Soviet pianist, widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.His last name is sometimes transliterated Hilels.-Biography:...
, Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
, Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
, Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
and Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
. Keating also compared Tozer's death to that of Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
, who died alone in Paris in 1977. "In the end, his liver failed. But I think I have to say we all let him down. ... We should have cared more and done more." The service was sparsely attended. The full text of Keating's eulogy, which contains some important biographical details not available elsewhere, can be found here.
External links
- "Child piano prodigy who became an artist of brilliance and depth" from The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- "Tozer back on the road" article from The AgeThe AgeThe Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
- Tozer playing the Étude in A flat, Op. 1, No. 2, by Paul de SchlözerPaul de SchlözerPaul de Schlözer was an obscure Polish or Russian pianist and teacher of German descent. He was possibly also a composer, but the only two works attributed to him may have been written by Moritz Moszkowski....
at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos.... - Geoffrey Tozer Obituary in The Times
- Obituary in Gramophone accessed: 2009-10-11.
- Geoffrey Tozer - Daily Telegraph obituary